Prologue

Smethport resident Matt Muller is off to teach English at a university in Hunan province in south central China. The province is famous for its spicy cuisine and the birthplace of Chinese Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. The major city there is Chenzhou, home to about 4.5 million people, most of whom live in the surrounding(…)

They call it the Middle Kingdom. Right now, I wait for paperwork. It is the only thing holding me back. I expect that everything will be in order by the middle of August, Year of the Ox. Until then I dream. Though not in China yet, anticipation, planning, and great expectations are all just as(…)

Born in the Year of the Dragon, the day Viking I landed on Mars, and about one year before the original Star Wars film hit the big screens, it is only natural that I would be forever restless, dreaming, and yearning to ramble beyond the borders of my country. I am just another migrant worker(…)

I have this condition. Something within compels me to wander with mournful tread. Everything once strange in life becomes familiar, ritual becomes routine, and life the antithesis of zen marks the time when you are but a bell toll away from the walking dead. Beyond these dust clouds kicked up by the masses of men(…)